PSYC 205 Lecture Notes - Catdog, Almost Surely, Habituation
Piaget's Theory -
Children are active learners or "little scientists" - constructivists because they construct
knowledge through trial and error
Children learn independently without instructions from others
Children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards from others
Sources of Continuity
Assimilation - taking what we see in the world and fitting it into our understanding of the world -
child sees a banana and then calls everything that is tube-shaped as banana
Accommodation - take our understanding to fit the characteristics of this new experience - the
parent explains the child that bananas are yellow and so the child will incorporate new info into
her understanding
Equilibration - adding up assimilation and accommodation
oEquilibrium - when child learns that tube shaped objects are banana
oDisequilibrium - when child learns that a carrot is tube shaped too but it is not a banana
oAdvanced equilibrium - when child finally realizes that only tube shaped yellow fruit
with white soft substance inside is a banana and can distinguish it
Piaget's Stage Theory - development moves through a series of stages that are:
Discontinuous - qualitatively different
Invariant - we go through these stages in a fixed order - early stages essential for the later stages
- cannot skip
Parallel - development goes at the same rate for all different understandings - at a particular
stage of development, we have the same understanding for time, space, etc.
4 stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 yrs)
oReflexes: sucking on objects, turning towards noises - all essential for exploring and
gaining knowledge about world
oObject permanence: lack until 8 months - the idea that objects continue to exist even
when they are out of view
oA-not-B error: by now, they can search for things but when you hide something under a
cloth and then move it to under a paper, they will still look under the cloth - only learn this
by around age 1
oDeferred imitation: imitate somebody's behavior at a later time (usually after hours or
days)
Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs)
oSymbolic representations: understanding that one thing can stand for another thing
(mental representation) - using a card as a phone, stick as a sword, can see symbols in
drawings - v for leaves, hearts for flowers
oLimitations
Children's thinking is very rigid
Preoperational because children cannot do operations
Lack of reversibility - kids don't understand going back and reversing their
actions
Egocentrism: inability to take others' perspective - 3 mountains on a board with
child sitting in front of it and asking them what the child sees from his seat and what
he would see if they changed positions with others on the table
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